Are we already saved just because we believe in Jesus?

And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day."  (John 6:40 EMTV)

The clearest doctrine in the New Testament affirms that to be saved you must believe in Jesus Christ. If you ask any Christian if they are saved they will joyfully and assuredly answered emphatically "YES". In other words, there is nothing else in the world that can rob them of that immediate salvation. Yet, it is true that to be saved you must believe in Jesus, does that mean that the believer can no longer sin which definitely robs your salvation if you do not repent and ask the Father for forgiveness in the name of Jesus? Those who firmly believe that they are already saved ignore the warnings of Jesus about what can jeopardize their salvation. Above all, when Jesus was asked who will be saved, here is His answer:

If you believe in Jesus Christ (you are already saved) but you do not do the will of the Father (you sin) or sin without repenting, how can you already be saved? Moreover, how do you know have not been deceived even in your belief in Jesus Christ? Ultimately, is salvation a present tense reality or a future tense unknown to you and God since we choose to believe in God, to do his will, and make sure we are not being deceived in some other ways? 

Can we have the assurance that we are saved or will be saved? Does God know whether we will be saved or not? Whenever I answer no to that question, people laugh out loud and dismiss me for being dumb. Am I? Are they?

Matthew 24:11-13 KJV

(11)  And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

(12)  And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

(13)  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Even Apostle Paul did not claim immediate salvation as we do today. He knew better than us all.

I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  (2 Timothy 4:7 EMTV)

1 Corinthians 9:26-27 KJ3

(26)  Therefore, so I run, as not uncertainly; so I fight, as not beating air;

(27)  but I buffet my body and enslave it, lest having preached to others I myself might be disapproved.

Paul shunned our false confidence.

  Therefore my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.  (Philippians 2:12 LEB)


July 21, 2018